Petition on the UK Parliament Website: Free movement/trade between U.K., Canada, Australia and New Z

[Deleted User]

As the U.K. is leaving the EU, this suggestion was posted on the U.K. Parliament Website which seems ideal since they are Commonwealth Countries after all and share common interests.

So far, there are 7,799 votes and when it reaches 10k the govt will respond. If it were to reach 100k, it would be considered for debate in Parliament.

Link: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/554372

As the UK concludes its transition period with the EU, the government should seek new diplomatic arrangements with Canada, Australia & New Zealand (CANZUK), formulating reciprocal migration & trade agreements between these countries to improve work and travel opportunities for citizens.

Travelling obviously wouldn't be for everyone's pocket, but rather those that can afford it.

 

[FAST6191]

Such things had been discussed for years (indeed you can probably make a case that the initial joining of the EU halted at least something resembling that for Australia, certainly a few that were around for that time feel that way going by conversations).

Chances of it happening? Don't see it. Not entirely sure it is a positive move beyond not having anything either.

Amusing to think of though.

 

[Taleweaver]

I'm...honestly not following this one.

Wait: lemme rephrase that: I understand what they want to achieve (below are the details from the petition:

Spoiler

Canada, Australia, New Zealand & the United Kingdom (CANZUK) are four of the closest and most like-minded nations in the world. Together, we share the same Sovereign, linguistic, cultural & historical ties, and are formidable allies in promoting democracy & human rights across the world.
By expanding our relationship to develop free trade & reciprocal living and working rights for our citizens, CANZUK will become an alliance that promotes opportunity & prosperity in the post-Brexit era.

)
...but I don't have a clue why there should be a poll for it. What's next? A poll on whether the government should import pfizer's covid-19 vaccine once it's properly validated?

In other words: YES OF COURSE I'M IN AGREEMENT!!!! More so: the government should have looked into it without this poll being necessary.

I wish I could vote, but alas...
"Only British citizens or UK residents have the right to sign"

Kind of obvious, I'll admit. But still...

Anyway: thanks for sharing, @Boesy. I hope you'll reach both targets.

Chances of it happening? Don't see it. Not entirely sure it is a positive move beyond not having anything either.

Hmm...can you say a bit more on this? With the UK close to being seriously hit by all sorts of tariffs as by WTO regulations, is there anything but a net gain on an agreement?

(I'm not saying reaching an agreement from scratch'll be easy, mind you. That also depends on what these countries want, which is something I don't have a clue about).

 

[FAST6191]

I'm...honestly not following this one.

Wait: lemme rephrase that: I understand what they want to achieve (below are the details from the petition:

Spoiler

Canada, Australia, New Zealand & the United Kingdom (CANZUK) are four of the closest and most like-minded nations in the world. Together, we share the same Sovereign, linguistic, cultural & historical ties, and are formidable allies in promoting democracy & human rights across the world.
By expanding our relationship to develop free trade & reciprocal living and working rights for our citizens, CANZUK will become an alliance that promotes opportunity & prosperity in the post-Brexit era.

)
...but I don't have a clue why there should be a poll for it. What's next? A poll on whether the government should import pfizer's covid-19 vaccine once it's properly validated?

In other words: YES OF COURSE I'M IN AGREEMENT!!!! More so: the government should have looked into it without this poll being necessary.

I wish I could vote, but alas...
"Only British citizens or UK residents have the right to sign"

Kind of obvious, I'll admit. But still...

Anyway: thanks for sharing, @Boesy. I hope you'll reach both targets.


Hmm...can you say a bit more on this? With the UK close to being seriously hit by all sorts of tariffs as by WTO regulations, is there anything but a net gain on an agreement?

(I'm not saying reaching an agreement from scratch'll be easy, mind you. That also depends on what these countries want, which is something I don't have a clue about).

Reasons for being a poll (and presumably a vote down the line) are the same for the going into the EU and leaving the EU ones. Assuming the conservatives have their ducks in a row (and while they are generally a do nothing government so far they did get rid of most dissent in the last election) they might well be able to force it through.

As far as the "full steam ahead, why not sooner?" then it is not necessarily a universal positive. Jumping into CANZUK does make things a bit harder to both speak to the EU, speak to India, possibly China but most are likely to ignore them and a bunch of other viable options around the place.

Difficulty in doing something is likely more on the external side as well which is where I was finding myself. Inside the UK I doubt it would be opposed in any great capacity (everybody young and old in each of those wanders off for holiday and work every which way all the time anyway) and would not take any great feat of propaganda.

I can't imagine Qubec (that otherwise seems to enjoy an awful lot of power beyond the population) will go willingly into this one if I can't even be arsed to trade properly with the rest of Canada and otherwise generally seems to fear the English language and influence. The rest of Canada is not so united either and the government there is shaky ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-54635712 , and I don't imagine they will delay the next no confidence vote which was predicted pretty much from the outcome of the election), though that might be something. Canada does also have both US regs to worry about and its impending deal with the EU. Canada's immigration regs are also pretty harsh as it is and that could be a sticking point if this acts as a floodgates affair.

Haven't kept up properly with New Zealand for a while but I don't know if the political will is there with the current government (which is an odd one as these things go), though I might be seriously underestimating that one. They do seem to variously be moving closer to Australia but slowly.

Australia 30 or 50 years ago would have probably lept at the chance (see ten pound poms) but today they are having problems of their own, are rather in bed with/beholden to China (granted not the UK does not have concerns here of its own), have their own Australasian/Oceania markets they are trying to spin up and having the UK and Canada rock up does change the power balance a bit.
Australia-Canada relations are... just there really rather than anything particularly special or notable, especially not in recent decades. However I shall wait and see what goes or underlines the next elections there (it is a fairly even split as these things go, though with the last election being 2019 and they will probably aim for the full three years then eh).

That then leaves everybody in the UK agreeing to such a deal, everybody in every other country then having to agree to all respective combinations there, everybody having to harmonise as best they can (and again Canada has the US and the EU as major partners which in turn would leave the UK arguably subject to things they are nominally leaving, though I am sure that will be ignored) and then write it up. CANZUK has been a thing kicking around in various forms for years now but nothing particularly formal beyond general intelligence sharing and something like a future "wouldn't it be nice".